What a day of tennis in Waco – 2 semifinal matches played simultaneously on adjacent courts with both coming down to a 3rd set tiebreak to decide it and they both finished within seconds of each other.
Back to business – we’ll start with Baylor/TCU. Baylor ran its doubles record to 23-1 by picking up a 6-4 win from Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano (18-1) at #1 and a 6-3 win from Vinny Schneider and Felipe Rios (16-3) at #3. TCU’s Trevor Johnson and Cameron Norrie ran their record to 12-2 with a 6-3 win at #2.
BAYLOR wins the doubles point as they defeat TCU on Court 1 6-4. #SicEm #Big12TEN pic.twitter.com/vkUg4dudzC
BaylorMTennis (@BaylorMTennis) April 25, 2015
Baylor’s Julian Lenz, Tony Lupieri, and Diego Galeano would get off to quick starts at 1, 2 and 4 singles by going up early breaks and each would eventually close out the opening set. TCU’s Arnau Dachs and Will Stein would get early break leads at 5 and 6 but while Dachs took his opening set 6-1, Stein would let a 5-2 lead slip away and drop the opening set to Felipe Rios 7-6(5). Stein served for the set up 5-2 and up 5-4 but got broke each time. Below is an amusing quote from the BU blog:
Rios served for the set up 6-5 but got broke at love and then in the TB Rios went up 6-3 only to lose both points on serve before Stein gave him the tiebreak by double faulting. TCU’s Cameron Norrie would break Max Tchoutakian at 4-4 and then serve to take the opening set at #4 by a 6-4 score. So that was 4 opening sets for Baylor and just 2 for TCU.
It appeared that Baylor’s Julian Lenz would be the first to finish as he served for the match at #1 up 6-1, 5-3 however TCU’s Nick Chappell had other plans and would break Lenz at love and then come all the way back to take the second set 7-5.
Lenz’s doubles parter Diego Galeano would finish off Facundo Lugones 6-3, 6-3 at #4 singles to make it 2-0 Baylor but a few minutes later TCU’s Cameron Norrie would put the Horned Frogs on the board with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Max Tchoutakian at #3. Felipe Rios would make it 3-1 BU as he gave Will Stein a second set breadstick to finish off a 7-6, 6-1 win at #6.
Here’s the point that won the match for Galeano #SicEm #Big12TEN pic.twitter.com/zrPcXPcJRc
BaylorMTennis (@BaylorMTennis) April 25, 2015
Tony Lupieri was looking good at #2 when he led Guillermo Nunez 6-3, 2-0 but Nunez hung around and eventually wore Lupieri out as he took it 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-0.
With the match tied at 3 it all came down to the 3rd set at #1 and TCU’s Nick Chappell would deliver the first blow by breaking Lenz to start the set and following that up with a hold for 2-0. Lenz would hold for 1-2, then break Chappell from 15-40 to tie it at 2, then hold for 3-2. Chappell held, Lenz held, then Chappell held again this time on the 40-40 deciding point so it was now 4-4. After another set of holds Chappell would break Lenz on the 30-40 point to go up 6-5. After falling behind 0-30 and 30-40 Chappell would get it to 40-40 which meant we had a match point/break point. Chappell would put a forehand into the net to give Lenz the break and then it was all Lenz in the deciding tiebreak as he jumped out to a 4-0 lead and cruised to a 7-1 win.
Tremendous match between those 2 teams and with the video not working well I have to say job well done to Kim Gorum for giving us the blow-by-blow on the Baylor blog.
Below is a clip that David Roditi shot of the crowd on match point and below that is the final point of the tiebreak.
It all comes down to the final court! #GoFrogs #TCUTennis #Big12TEN pic.twitter.com/Pnbwoge1WB
TCU Men’s Tennis (@TCUMensTennis) April 25, 2015
Here’s Lenz’s serve that won the tiebreaker 7-1 and sent the Bears into the Big 12 Championship #SicEm #Big12TEN pic.twitter.com/xmMIpFuhq7
BaylorMTennis (@BaylorMTennis) April 25, 2015
Lenz talks about his big victory today #SicEm #Big12TEN pic.twitter.com/WwyzeV3NS6
BaylorMTennis (@BaylorMTennis) April 25, 2015
Hear @RoditiTCUTennis‘s message to the fans following today’s match. #TCUTennis #GoFrogs pic.twitter.com/SL80GZplZj
TCU Men’s Tennis (@TCUMensTennis) April 25, 2015
#2 Baylor 4, #6 TCU 3
“Oklahoma goes up 1-0” is a phrase that hasn’t been said too often this year but a reconfigured doubles lineup gave the Sooners the point that turned out to be the difference. Oklahoma was just 12-12 in doubles going into the Big 12 Tournament so John Roddick decided to roll the dice and split up his #1 team of Axel Alvarez and Dane Webb (who are ranked #10) by pairing Webb with Spencer Papa at #2 and Alvarez with Jose Salazar at #3. He moved his #2 team of Alex Ghilea and Andrew Harris up to #1 and they would deliver a 6-4 win to go with the 6-4 win that Webb and Papa picked up at #2.
#Big12TEN @OU_MTennis clinches the doubles point with a win from Webb/Papac. Here’s the clinching point: pic.twitter.com/VtA3Xc2Rw0
Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) April 25, 2015
Texas came out really hot in singles and took the opening set on courts 3, 4, 5, and 6 while Oklahoma got the opening set on 1 and 2. According to OU’s twitter it was the 1st time all year that the Sooners had dropped 4 opening sets.
Adrien Berkowicz was the first to finish as he beat Dane Webb 6-3, 7-5 at #3 singles. Berkowicz got broke serving for it up 5-4 in the 2nd but he would break right back and then serve it out. This was the second time that Berkowicz has beaten Webb in the last 4 weeks.
Clement Homs would make it 2-1 Texas as he rubbed out Florin Bragusi 6-2, 6-4 at #6 singles but Axel Alvarez would even it at 2 with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Soren Hess-Olesen #1. Alvarez served for the match up 5-3 in the 2nd but Hess-Olesen broke and held before Alvarez held and broke to win it.
Nick Naumann would put Texas back ahead with a 7-6(3), 7-5 win over Spencer Papa at #5. Papa had a break lead in the 2nd set but he couldn’t consolidate it and Naumann would ultimately break again to close out the match.
Andrew Harris would tie it at 3 with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 win over Lloyd Glasspool at #2 singles which set the stage for the deciding match at #4 between Texas’s George Goldhoff and Oklahoma’s Alex Ghilea.
Goldhoff took the opening set 6-2 but Ghilea came back from a break down to take the second 6-3. Ghilea broke to go up 3-2 in the 3rd but Goldhoff would break back and hold to go up 4-3. Ghilea held for 4-4 then broke and was serving for the match up 5-4 but Goldhoff would break back to tie it at 5. Ghilea would break again only to have Goldhoff break back to send it to a deciding tiebreak. Ghilea went up 4-2 in the TB and ended up pulling away to take it 7-3. Below is match point for Ghilea.
#Big12TEN FINAL: @OU_MTennis 4, @TexasMTN 3. Alex Ghilea wins it in tiebreaker on this point: pic.twitter.com/XQy53rmwWx
Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) April 25, 2015
Oklahoma recap
Texas recap
PAC 12
Tonight’s Pac 12 Championship match was the rubber match in the USC/Stanford series with each winning at home. Stanford would take the doubles point for the 3rd time this year against USC by winning 8-6 at 1 and 8-5 at 2 while USC won 8-2 at 3.
USC turned up the heat in singles by taking the opening set on every court except #5 although the scoreboard showed De Vroome taking the set at #5 until it was switched a couple of games into the 2nd set. Jonny Wang cut through Nolan Paige like a buzz-saw and racked up a 6-2, 6-2 win at #4 to even the match at 1.
Wang is first off in singles with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Paige. The Trojans are tied 1-1 with Stanford in Ojai #usc pic.twitter.com/4RrgjKZqX9
USC Men’s Tennis (@USCMensTennis) April 26, 2015
Roberto Quiroz would put USC up 2-1 with a 6-4, 6-4 win at #3 over David Wilczynski. Video clip is set point in the 1st set. USC’s twitter had a video of match point but the picture was black with audio only.
Boom! Quiroz gets the first set 6-4 at line 3 singles over Stanford #usc #usctennis #trojans #fighton pic.twitter.com/mN0W7syB4O
USC Men’s Tennis (@USCMensTennis) April 26, 2015
David Hsu would even the match at 2 with a somewhat surprising 7-5, 6-4 win over Big Max De Vroome at #5. Hsu had a nice fall then hit a rough patch early in the dual-match season but rebounded to win his last 10 matches. De Vroome’s 9-match winning streak was snapped.
Tom Fawcett would come back from a set down to roll over Yannick Hanfmann 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 at #1. This was the second time in the last 2 weeks that Fawcett came back from a set down to beat Hanfmann. Hanfmann finishes the regular season by dropping his final 5.
Nick Crystal would tie it at 3 with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Maciek Romanowicz at #6. Crystal broke Romanowicz to go up 5-4 and then served it out at love.
Exactly 3 minutes later the match would come to a conclusion as Eric Johnson put the finishing touches on his 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win over John Morrissey at #2 singles. Morrissey was the hero in the last meeting when he came back 7-6, 5-2 down to beat Roberto Quiroz but Johnson wasn’t going to let the same thing happen to him. Below is match point courtesy of USC’s Twitter.
Johnson clinches it 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. The Trojans defeat Stanford 4-3 and are the Pac-12 Conference Tournament Champions pic.twitter.com/5qouumpisG
USC Men’s Tennis (@USCMensTennis) April 26, 2015
I also wanted to give props to USC for taking these short video clips – it really helps tell the story when you’ve got video to go with it.
Your 2015 #pac12ten men’s team champions: USC! pic.twitter.com/O9meoMpfz0
Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) April 26, 2015
Order of finish: 4, 3, 5, 1, 6, 2*
ACC
The morning started off nicely in Cary with ESPN3 broadcasting the Virginia/North Carolina match however just a few minutes into singles the rain would come and force both the UVA/UNC and Wake/GT matches to go indoors. It also meant the end of the streaming telecast so it was back to tracking the live scoreboard and the school’s twitter account to see who was serving.
Virginia took the doubles point outdoors with wins at 1 and 2 but when the rain came the match was moved indoors to Duke’s indoor facility. Virginia picked up 3 straight set wins from Ryan Shane, Mitchell Frank, and JC Aragone at 1, 2, and 6 singles to extend Virginia’s ACC winning streak to 138 matches. Virginia has also won 26 consecutive matches in the ACC Tournament.
When Shane led 6-1, 5-1 the action on his court and Altamirano’s court came to a halt due to a leak in the roof. Neither of those matches was able to restart until another court opened up. It would have been something if Shane would have got screwed out of a win because of something like that. Fortunately for him he wasn’t – below is an interview he did after the match
Virginia recap
“When you get into the business, you don’t imagine you will be in 12 straight conference finals, especially in a league as tough as the ACC,” said head coach Brian Boland. “It says a lot about the great players and coaches that have come through the program. We look forward to the opportunity to play another final against a really good Wake team. I know the guys are excited for it.”
North Carolina recap
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (6,1,2)
In the other semifinal Wake Forest jumped Georgia Tech in doubles by winning 8-2 at #2 and 8-1 at #3 and then they kept it going in singles as Noah Rubin, Skander Mansouri, and Christian Seraphim all won in straight sets. Georgia Tech was hanging in there on the other courts but they couldn’t break through at 1, 3, and 5. The Georgia Tech recap also has an audio interview with Kenny Thorne.
Wake Forest recap
Georgia Tech recap
“Wake Forest really took it to us in doubles. I really felt good about our game plan in all three matches, but we didn’t execute well at the beginning of the matches,” said Tech coach Kenny Thorne. “Same thing in singles. Wake just took it to us; they played better than us. They’re a good team and deserve to be ranked No. 11.”
#11 Wake Forest 4, #55 Georgia Tech 0
Singles played indoors at Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.
.@JaredHiltzik & @Timbo__slice07 win 8-4 on court 1! #ILLINI pic.twitter.com/en1H45Iju4
Illini Men’s Tennis (@IlliniMTennis) April 25, 2015
.@JaredHiltzik wins 6-4, 6-4 on court 1!! #ILLINI [1] Illinois 3, [4] Northwestern 0 pic.twitter.com/dLcBzVcorX
Illini Men’s Tennis (@IlliniMTennis) April 25, 2015
.@farrisgosea clinches the #ILLINI victory with 6-3, 6-2 win on court 2! FINAL: [1] Illinois 4, [4] Northwestern 0 pic.twitter.com/oAK7kXbJFa
Illini Men’s Tennis (@IlliniMTennis) April 25, 2015
Illinois recap
“Northwestern, they have a great team,” head coach Brad Dancer said. “They have a great indoor team. So they posed a lot of challenges for us in that sense, but our guys responded today. We’re thrilled to play at home, to play in front of our fans and to have a chance to win a Big Ten title tomorrow.”
Northwestern recap
The second semifinal between Ohio State and Minnesota was actually played outdoors after the rain cleared out. Ohio State took the doubles point by winning 8-4 at 2 and 3 and then they took 5 opening sets with Hunter Callahan, Kevin Metka, and Ralf Steinbach winning at 4, 5, and 6 singles.
Ohio State recap
Minnesota recap
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (6,4,5)
Other Conference Tournaments:
WCC:
San Diego won its 2nd consecutive West Coast Conference Championship as the top seeded Toreros beat #2 Pepperdine 4-1. San Diego took the doubles point and then picked up singles wins from Filip Vittek, Jordan Angus, and Geoffrey Fosso with Angus providing the clincher at #3.
San Diego recap
“It feels amazing,” junior Jordan Angus said, a transfer from Mississippi State University. “I am so proud of the guys. Every match counts the same, but to be the one to win is definitely special. I came here to try and make history, but the work ethic of these guys has been incredible and we have definitely earned our success.”
#22 San Diego 4, #42 Pepperdine 1
At this point there are so many possibilities that it's tough to say – GT will get a boost from Clemson beating Louisville, and its loss to UNC will be improved since UNC beat Duke. <br /><br />Of course New Mexico's loss to Boise won't be as bad when they shoot up some plus the win over Boise earlier in the year will look better.
UCLA does not deserve to host!
New Mexico will get a boost in the 2nd run? Could this mean that Georgia tech didn't quite do enough to get in?